Lives of the Lovelorn: Hawkeye and the Black Widow

Both Clint and Natasha were introduced in the pages of Iron Man (well, Tales of Suspense in those days, which he shared with Captain America), both as villainous (or semi-villainous in the case of Hawkeye) characters.

Tony Stark always was more concerned about the Commies than a lot of Marvel's heroes--he began his Iron Man career in Viet Nam and, since at that time he was primarily a manufacturer of weapons, he had to deal with industrial espionage on top of the usual villainry. That's where the Black Widow came in, a Soviet spy sent to seduce Stark and learn his secrets. She had first gone in alone, and had been less than successful (although not about the seducation, which with Tony was pretty much a given in those days). So when she met Hawkeye and saw in him a potential ally to be used against Stark, she applied her techniques in his direction. Poor guy never had a chance.



Unfortunately for Natasha, she didn't do any better partnered with Hawkeye than she had alone--he took a shot at Iron Man, and his arrow bounced off of the armor and hit her.



Now, Natasha was a communist spy at this point in her career, but Hawkeye was not. In fact, he had taken on a costumed identity in order to fight evil (granted that he was first motivated by jealousy of Iron Man, but still his heart was always in the right place). So she had to convince him that she, as well, was on the side of good. Not that this was difficult, convincing Clint of what he wanted to think anyway...



...but on some level he really did realize what was going on.



At this point their love affair was interrupted, when Natasha--unsuccessful in completing her mission--was taken back to her home base by force.



But as she leaves the scene, the seeds of her eventual redemption are planted--she really does love Hawkeye, after all.



When next we see Natasha, she is in a costume given her by her superiors, who have given her an ultimatum: complete your mission or else.



And we're shown just what "or else" means (and given yet another reason to find her sympathetic).



When she asks him to help her against Iron Man once again, he's still reluctant, but--as usual--it doesn't take much for her to convince him.



However, it also doesn't take much for him to give up on the subsequent battle with Iron Man. He says it's all because he loves her so much, but I'm pretty sure that he didn't mind being given a way out of the fight.



However, Hawkeye's failure to complete his part of the mission apparently caused a break with the Widow, because the next time we see her is in the pages of The Avengers--again as a villainess but with some doubt in her heart.



And new-Avenger Clint also allows his emotions to get the better of him:



But in the end, all was well...



...at least for a while. Oh, sure, there were trust issues:



And, even as a "good guy" Natasha wasn't necessarily going to be Avengers material in that era:



And then there was her career as an agent (double-agent, even!) of SHIELD:



Even after the whole traitor storyline was over, there were issues. Such as the revelation of Natasha's husband:



Eventually, Natasha tried to quit the whole thing.



But that didn't work out so well for her, either.



And eventually she returned to spy work.



(Note that Hawkeye, on the whole, was far cooler about Natasha's SHIELD career than Captain America was about Sharon's.)



But Natasha appeared less and less often in the pages of The Avengers. Eventually the lovers were once again torn apart, and eventually it really would be the end.



The next time we see Natasha, all the years of deception--necessary or not--have come to a head:




I was actually pretty impressed, reading that last comic--published in the mid-1970s, which really takes it out of the Silver Age--that the emotional consequences of typical Silver Age romantic nonsense were being dealt with somewhat realistically--or at all!

I don't think she and Clint ever did discuss the particulars of their relationship (they didn't at that point, in any case), but there is, at least, a sense that there are consequences to actions--to the fact that as a villain she had preyed on the emotions of a needy man, and as a heroine she had treated him inconsistently at best due to her work, and that regardless of motive she had done him some damage and recognized this.

I haven't read the Black Widow mini yet, so I'm not sure how much is different about her current backstory, but--take away the Silver Age soft-focus lens--and here you've got a character who has not only really changed over time, she has become consciously self-aware. I'm not saying that any of that is likely to have stuck, or that she wouldn't make some of the same mistakes again--it's comics, after all, and even in real life habit is hard to break--but that's pretty cool.